Ye long movie review...

DISCLAIMER: Returning to blogging after a loooong gap…So might be a bit rusty...Also, this is a very looooong blog. So please bear with me if you lose interest in the middle (or even at the beginning, for that matter).

Almost half a year back, around a dozen of my section-mates and me went to watch a movie that I was most eager to watch. In fact, so eager was I that we went on the first day of its release. Although I knew this is not the typical box office blaster, I was surprised that only I and another friend liked the movie. I might go as far as to add that I loved the movie.

Today, after I completed watching the movie for the second time, I can say that this movie moved me as much, if not more, as it did the first time. And this time, I can better appreciate its haunting quality because rather than watching it with around 12 bored peers, I was watching it alone.

I am talking about Swades – We, the People. Directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, it stars SRK, then newcomer Gayatri Joshi and others. The stellar and haunting score is by A R Rahman and the lyrics are by Javed Akhtar.

Theme:
The theme is about a NRI scientist returning to India to meet his childhood ayah and to take her back to the US. He follows her trail till a quaint little village which, like most villages in India, has its share of societal, political and infrastructural hurdles. The movie is about how he tries to influence life in the village and how, in turn, his life is influenced.

The societal hurdles include casteism, hegemony of the Panchayats, societal norms and general apathy to the disparities in the village and the infrastructural hurdles include lack of a steady supply of electricity, as a solution for which the scientist encourages and directs the villagers to build a small turbine from a mountain brook. While people may assume that this movie is about that small triumph of the people (which is by the way, inspired from a true incident), that would be WAY OFF MARK.

The theme of the movie is the underdevelopment of India’s rural areas, the problems faced by them and the general apathy of the Government as well as the people themselves towards such issues. The theme is about a person who is affected by all this to the extent that he comes back to his country to do something about it. The theme, while appearing to be too simplistic, actually moves the audience in the actual execution. As SRK mentions to his friend while explaining why he has to leave, “Now this is not about Kaveri Amma or Geeta, it is about the people”, the movie is about making things change for better.

Execution:
OK, the theme is noble. Very nice of Mohan Bhargava (SRK’s character) and so on…But where this movie scores is in the execution.

Not that I know much about direction and all, but on the whole, I enjoyed every moment of the movie, from the most poignant scenes of the misery of the rural-folk to the weepy goodbyes. The treatment of the topic might feel childish at times in the sense that things seem to move for the better almost at the slightest effort of the protagonist. For example, in a public screening of a movie, the lower-caste is seated on the wrong side of the screen so as to not “pollute” the higher-caste members. In a song-and-dance sequence, SRK ends up tearing the demarcation and marginally unite both parties.

But the strengths of the movie are its very poignant scenes. Some are

• SRK goes to collect the rent for land from a weaver-turned-farmer, who lost the support of the village elders when he shifted his profession to survive. The plight of the family moves SRK to the point where the only thing he can manage to say is “Yeh to theek nahi hai” and can do is to give the family some money.
• SRK, on his way back to the village, sees a kid selling tumblers of water for 25p each at Ajite station. The music, the situation and most of all, surprisingly, SRK’s acting made sure both times that my eyes were moist.

It’s actually on the return trip that you can see SRK acting, for a change. No dialogs, just full shots of SRK in the melee. He is at his best in this movie (Personal opinion disclaimer applies). All in all, these parts are very touching.

It is after these experiences that SRK’s character starts feeling uneasy in the current state and starts to itch to bring about some change. Then it is a bit like Lagaan, where the protagonist faces a lot of cynicism, mistrust and opposition but finally manages to overcome all to win, in this case, to bring electricity generation into the village. That’s all fine.

But the end is about the pulls that try to stop SRK from leaving his village and country. There’s a love angle between Geeta and SRK, there’s Kaveri Amma who doesn’t want to uproot and re-plant in USA at that age.

Finally after SRK leaves for USA and is working on the second phase of his project, he starts missing his life back in the village. Now this is the part where the classic “Yeh jo des hai tera” starts playing in the background. In these parts, he sees the village in intermittent unconnected visions while he is doing his work. Now it is either the music, or SRK’s acting, or the fact that I had these visions about me and my friends having a good time back home during meetings, classes etc. but controlling the waterworks when I reach this part is damn tough (Not that I try very hard).

And….he finally comes back. The last scene is him cleaning himself after a wrestling match by the river and the camera zooming out, to cover the entire village. It’s quite a simple, but grand and symbolic end.

Music and lyrics:
I really have no words to describe the music in this movie (Beemer, another ardent ARR fan, first told me that the music was on campus…Eternally grateful for that, dude). Needless to say, my first favourite was “Yuhi chala”. But after I saw the movie, I am unable to decide between “Swades”, “Dekho na” or “Yuhi Chala”. “Dekho na” is a very soft love song that has a very playful base.

Lyrics-wise, I can’t forget “Pal Pal”, especially the last few lines. It goes like

Ram hi to karunamay hai, shanti mein Ram hai,
Ram hi to ekta mein, prakruti mein Ram hai.
Ram bas bhakton nahi shatru ki bhi chintan mein hai.
Dekh tyajke paap Raavan, Ram tere man mein hai.
Man se Raavan jo nikaale Ram uske man mein hai.

The last two lines draw such a parallel of pure good and evil, indicating what I always believe, that the absence of malice is goodness.

Overall, the movie is a brilliant amalgamation of haunting music, superb acting, very good dialogues and cinematography and direction. Though you might disagree with the trivialization of the situation and problems and some amount of standard clichés in the movie, this is one movie you cannot miss, and nor is this one that you are likely to forget for a long time.

Over and out...

PS: There’s another reason why I love this movie. The camera that SRK uses to click snaps around the village is the same model as the one yours truly uses to click almost whatever he can see.